The present invention relates to a rolled medium supporting mechanism for supporting both ends of a rolled medium and a recording apparatus having the rolled medium supporting mechanism. More specifically, the invention relates to a rolled medium supporting mechanism and a recording apparatus having the rolled medium supporting mechanism, in which the mechanism can support core members, having different diameters, of a rolled medium with a simple structure.
Generally, in a large-sized printer that is one of recording apparatuses, a paper feeding unit for feeding roll paper that is one of recording mediums, a recording unit for recording data on the roll paper fed thereto, and a paper discharging unit for discharging the roll paper having the data recorded thereon are arranged in this order from the upper portion thereof. The roll paper is inserted into the paper feeding unit in a state in which a holding member is inserted into both ends of a hollow paper tube serving as a shaft core. The roll paper holding member is formed in a shape such that a disk-shaped flange portion and a cylindrical boss portion are integrated as a single body, and the holding member supports the roll paper with the boss portion inserted into the paper tube. The boss portion is formed in a diameter suitable for a paper tube with a diameter of 2 inches. When a paper tube with a diameter of 3 inches is used, an adapter, which is a separate component, is fitted to the boss portion so as to be adaptable to the paper tube (see JP-A-2003-276911).
The above-described roll paper holding member requires an adapter in order to adapt to paper tubes having different diameters. The storage or maintenance of the adapter is troublesome. When the diameter of the paper tube used is irregular, the pulling-out and pushing-in operation of the boss portion into and from the paper tube may require a large force.